a third of the country is seeing the big chill deepen. Last night, we showed you the cold blast stretching from maine to maryland. But tonight, the arctic air is marching south, all the way to alabama. And as abc's alex perez tells us, even firefighters are getting frozen in place. Alex? Reporter: Well, diane, this deep freeze making it difficult for firefighters in all those states to do their job. Here in chicago, this warehouse fire started on tuesday, reignited this morning and as you can see, all the water crews are dousing on this structure has turned it into an urban igloo. Burning ice. An unusual sight in a tremendous battle for chicago firefighters working in near zero temperatures. Slips, falls increase, the fos brit. Your body has to work hard just to keep yourself warm. You're going to get fatigued faster. Reporter: The chill creating problems for firefighters all over. This home in indianapolis, up in flames. The owner was using an oven to keep warm. The deep freeze also deadly. At least four deaths blamed on the cold blast. In parts of indiana, lake effect snow. In new york city, one sign of the icebox misery, a fire hydrant frozen in time. In salt lake city, a cold, icy runway caused a plane to slide and forced officials to shut down the airport. On the roads, another day of pileups. This one in ohio, where authorities had to shut down a stretch of i-90. And for many drivers with dead batteries, just getting out of the drive way was a struggle. This is about my tenth call, ooi I'd say. Just kind of nonstop when it gets cold like this. Reporter: Aaa says the number of people calling their tow trucks for help has skyrocketed by 200% to 300%. Batteries only have a three to five-year life cycle, so, if it is older than that, and you're heading out in this cold weather, you best check your battery. Reporter: When it's this cold, how frustrating is it when you can't get your car to work? It's really frustrating. Because sometimes you're just sitting out there, freezing, and there's nowhere to go. Reporter: Tonight, egg-cicles. Look at this time lapse photo. This weather is nothing to yolk about. Reporter: Authorities say the weight of all that ice has made this structure unsafe. They say it could still be a couple of days before they are able to extinguish all the hot spots.

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